Sports log: NBA owners want Kings to stay in Sacramento

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Committee wants Sacramento to stay

The NBA’s relocation committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend that owners reject the application for the Sacramento Kings to relocate to Seattle. The committee, made up of 12 league owners, made the decision over a conference call and forwarded its recommendation to the NBA Board of Governors. The board, which consists of all 30 owners, will convene during the week of May 13 to vote on the matter. Moments after the league announced the committee’s recommendation, Sacramento’s mayor, Kevin Johnson, wrote on Twitter: ‘‘That’s what I'm talking about SACRAMENTO!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!!’’ The recommendation doesn’t guarantee the Kings will stay in California’s capital city. But at this point, it’s difficult to imagine how they don't.

Baseball

Report: Bosch denies PED involvement

Tony Bosch, believed to be the leader of a Florida performance-enhancing drug scandal involving some of baseball’s biggest names, told ESPN the media accounts of his involvement have been an inaccurate “character assassination’’ . . . Making a move to shore up a shaky bullpen, the Cardinals demoted struggling lefthanded reliever Marc Rzepczynski to the minor leagues. The decision means the Cardinals are keeping Mitchell Boggs on the active big league roster despite a 12.66 ERA. Rzepczynski allowed seven runs in eight innings over nine appearances for a 7.88 ERA and gave up a two-run homer to Russell Martin in the ninth inning of Sunday’s 9-0 loss to the Pirates. Boggs was charged with the other three runs in that inning . . . Dodgers outfield prospect Yasiel Puig, a 22-year-old Cuban defector, faces charges of reckless driving, speeding, and driving without proof of insurance in Tennessee after police say he went 97 miles per hout in a 50-m.p.h. zone early Sunday. The Chattanooga Police Department report said Puig indicated he was serving as a designated driver when he was arrested at about 1 a.m. . . . The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera is writing an autobiography called ‘‘The Closer.’’ It will be published next spring.

Horse racing

Britain is investigating more doping

Less than a week after the Godolphin steroids scandal, British horse racing is conducting another major doping investigation after trainer Gerard Butler admitted giving horses a product that contained anabolic steroids. The British Horseracing Authority confirmed a ‘‘number of positive samples’’ were obtained from horses at Butler’s stable following a confession by the trainer. The case emerged after Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was banned for eight years this week after he admitted to administering anabolic steroids to 15 horses in his care.

Miscellany

Obama fan of Nebraska cancer patient

The 7-year-old cancer patient who became an Internet sensation for his touchdown run in Nebraska’s spring football game has yet another fan — President Obama. Jack Hoffman, his family, and former Cornhuskers running back Rex Burkhead visited Obama for 15 minutes in the Oval Office. Obama presented Jack with a new football and told him he was proud of him . . . Ivan Dodig
upset two-time champion Nikolay Davydenko, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the BMW Open at Munich . . .
Sixth-seeded Benoit Paire of France beat Igor Sijsling, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in the opening round of the Portugal Open at Oeiras. The top three men’s seeded players, led by David Ferrer, have first-round byes in the clay-court tournament . . . Rafael Nadal is scheduled to play at Roger Federer’s hometown tournament for the first time in nine years. Organizers of the Swiss Indoors announced their star attractions for the Oct. 19-27 event in Basel. The field is headed by five-time champion Federer, Nadal, and defending champion Juan Martin del Potro . . . Michigan police said a minivan carrying a high school golf team broadsided another van, killing the coach, a player, and a passenger in the other vehicle. The coach and six players from the Grayling High School boys’ golf team were headed to a match Monday morning when their silver minivan broadsided a white minivan in Excelsior Township, about 25 miles east of Traverse City. A 17-year-old player was killed and four others are in critical condition. A 27-year-old woman in the white minivan also was killed. The female driver was injured, while a 3-year-old girl appeared unhurt . . . The Boston Breakers acquired Melinda Mercado from the Western New York Flash for a second-round pick in the National Women’s Soccer League draft in 2014 . . . Flash forward Abby Wambach has been cleared to play after missing her team’s home opener because of a head injury last weekend. Wambach is set to take the field Wednesday night, when the Flash host Sky Blue FC.